Missing mail: love letters and birthday cards opened

Detective Grant Miller (left), Detective Matt Jones (centre) and Senior Constable Julian Cahill count mail not delivered to Fernhill residents, which will be both returned to its rightful owners and produced as evidence in court on Monday. Photo by...

More Wakatipu residents than first believed have been affected by the recently discovered case of undelivered mail as police have found mail addressed to Arrowtown and Lake Hayes Estate residents.

Love letters, bank statements, bills and birthday cards were allegedly opened by a Queenstown postie, who had stored up to 20,000 items between her home in Frankton and an Arrowtown storage unit instead of delivering it.

While the original 12,000 pieces of mail found at the woman's Frankton address on Friday were addressed to Fernhill residents, a further 7000-plus items were found in Arrowtown this week as the accused had been contracted to Arrowtown and Lake Hayes Estate within the past 12 months, Detective Grant Miller, of Queenstown, said.

He estimated 2%-3% of that mail had been opened.

Fernhill residents are still coming to grips with the fact their mail went missing and are calling for accountability from New Zealand Post.

A 32-year-old woman was arrested last Friday after police discovered more than 12,000 pieces of mail throughout the Frankton property where she lived.

Queenstown detectives have spent days counting tens of thousands of envelopes and packages the contracted New Zealand Post delivery woman had allegedly stolen and stored since September last year.